I have never been as scared in my life as I was about an hour ago.
Relatedly, I’m an idiot.

Quick back story: anybody who hasn’t been living under a rock for the past two months knows about the revolutions going on in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, etc. But what everyone might not know is that they’re spreading to China, too. That is, they’re trying to spread, anyway. The CCP isn’t really having any of it, though.

Here, they call it the “Jasmine Revolution,” a term selected in part because “Jasmine” is the name of an extremely popular pop song, which makes it difficult to censor. Not that it isn’t being censored — if you try to post anything on Chinese social networks that contains the term, well

Status updates with the word on popular Chinese social networking site Renren.com were met with an error message and a warning to refrain from postings with “political, sensitive … or other inappropriate content.”

It aims to create rallies and demonstrations in support of better living conditions, cheaper housing, some amount of democratic reform, and a decrease in government corruption. Protesters were specifically urged to chant “We want food, we want work, we want housing, we want fairness.” Source/another really good article, with pictures
What makes it personal to me is that in Beijing, the focal point of the ‘revolution’ is the intersection next to the Wangfujing McDonalds. Readers paying attention may recall that said McDonalds is about three minutes from my house.

Here’s an article written yesterday about the protest planned for today.
The highlight:

Five Chinese human rights activists have been charged with “endangering state security” by “inciting subversion of state power,” a crime for which they could be sentenced to years in prison. These arrests take place on the heels of the disappearance of 3 human rights lawyers.

International director of Chinese Human Rights Defenders Renee Xia released a statement saying, “The numbers point to a bad situation that is only getting worse. In the matter of a few days, we have seen more cases of prominent lawyers subjected to prolonged disappearances, more criminal charges that may carry lengthy prison sentences for activists, more home raids, and a heavier reliance on extralegal measures.”

They specifically are cracking down on foreign journalists without licenses. Maybe you see where I’m going with this. While I certainly would not be pretentious enough to label myself a real “journalist” by any stretch of the imagination, your average Chinese cop is not going to know that.

The site calling people to action, Boxun, requested:

“We invite every participant to stroll, watch, or even just pretend to pass by. As long as you are present, the authoritarian government will be shaking with fear.”

But Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), warned: “If you are calling for people to demonstrate on the streets in China, you are exposing them to great danger.” Source

So today, my roommate gets home from lunch at around 2:30. “They’re doing that Jasmine thing again in Wangfujing. The one you told me about a few days ago, you know?”
“Wait, now?” (The demonstrations, it turned out, were supposed to start at 2)
“Yeah,” he says, “I mean, it’s mainly cops, but you can try to go down there…”
But by this point I’m already halfway out the door, camera in hand. Five minutes later I’m trying to figure out how to get past this:

I can see the Mcdonalds from here. What if I just wanted a cheeseburger, man?

The crowd trying to get into Wangfujing

Can’t go through the mall or even through a firedoor in the lingerie shop at the bottom of the mall, though I damn well tried. I was determined, though, and one of the reasons that the Wangfujing McDonalds was probably chosen is its accessibility; the area is wide open — surely they couldn’t block everything. Plus, from the street I had seen people by the McDonalds. They all got there somehow, so I could too. Finally I found this cross street behind a hotel that wasn’t guarded for whatever reason.

And then the pictures stop.
But not because I stopped taking them. No, I wandered around the McDonalds area for damn near half an hour, talking to people, taking pictures, asking questions. Seven of seven policemen don’t know why there are so many policemen around, incidentally. One of the policemen near the front of the street would only say “有事儿” and elaborate no further. “There’s something.”
The people there didn’t really respond to me asking things either. “It’s not clear,” “I don’t know,” even “维修 — maintenance.”
Yes, you certainly do need seventy-five uniformed policemen and thirty other undercover cops wearing wires for maintenance duties. That makes perfect sense, guys.
The McDonalds itself was closed — I wanted to go buy a revolutionary milkshake — and the police made up about a 1-to-3 ratio against civilians in the immediate area. I kept taking pictures pretty discretely. Lots of people were milling about but there weren’t any signs of a formal protest. Nobody was chanting or even seemed organized in the slightest. Finally I got bored and wasn’t really getting any new information, so I decided to head back. Before I left though I overtly took one last shot of the fast food joint’s facade, swarming with police.

Three plainclothes cops saw it. They immediately crossed the street, walking fast. Very fast. Not looking pleased.oh, shit.
Tried to walk away. They caught up to me. Two of them grabbed my arms, one started yelling at me. They spoke too quickly to understand, but they began to drag me towards a nearby building — some unmarked office next to the bookstore, with a cop at the door. Their speech may have been incomprehensible, but I knew what that door meant.fuck fuck fuck i’m going to get disappeared
I began screaming. I alternated between “I DON’T UNDERSTAND” and “PLEASE I JUST WANT TO GO HOME, LET ME GO HOME”
Really I was just aiming to make as big of a scene as I could, so hopefully some foreign journalist or somebody might see a kid getting dragged off into an unmarked room by three undercover cops. Nothing doing. All passerby looked pointedly away. The yelling made them nervous; the cops dragged me faster. Seeing no weapons immediately visible on them, I started struggling in kind. They had nothing to threaten me with, and I guess they didn’t want to punch me for whatever reason. This was somewhat emboldening.
I wouldn’t let them take me inside, continued yelling. Loudly. Very, very loudly. In poor, panicked Mandarin.
The third one was looking increasingly scared — I guess people usually go quietly. They did want this noisy whitey as far from the McDonalds as they could, though. That was clear. The two guys weren’t letting up, but they also weren’t very strong. Screaming and twisting in front of this fucking doorway into dissappearsville, I manged to eek out “My camera! Can I just give you my pictures?”
“Go inside”
“I WILL NOT GO INSIDE. YOU CAN HAVE MY PICTURES”
“Fine, give us the camera”
“It’s my FUCKING*english CAMERA you can have the PICTURES”
At this point, I took it out and hit the ‘display’ button. That last picture of the McDonalds flashed up. The third one had the first two let go of me; they had me backed up against a wall and both stood about six inches away. I tried to delete it, to show him what I meant, but I fumbled and hit the menu button or something. Frustrated, the third one tried to take the camera out of my hands, but I wouldn’t let him. “让我让我” — “just let me do it”
Finally I found the little trash can button on the camera, pointed it out to him, and he nodded. We then went through the entire camera, and he had me delete each and every picture taken after that one in the alley. I was shaking pretty badly, had a hard time hitting the buttons. After we’d been through the full cycle twice, he told me to be quiet, and looked at the other two who shrugged. “Go home” he said.

Fucking hell.
Note: in somewhat of a vain attempt to protect myself and this blog, I’ve set this entry to not be discoverable via search engines, so don’t worry about that. Yay…

8 Comments:

A’ight. Glad to see my international pink coat minion movement is going strong. Lady in the “crowd” photo, yea height of fashion, right thurrr. Also, you’re looking at this the wrong way, crazy journalists. Your goal should have been to end up on youtube in a Chinese version of one of the Korean Prisoner Thriller dance..Talk about a Cage Match.

But okay no, on a more serious note glad everything’s okay. That sounds like a scary but worthwhile story. It also makes my own personal inner journalist curious, 1-3 ratio? That’s pretty drastic, are they really concerned it’s going to become that serious of a movement in China too?

Anyway, side note: Some international.. wait for it, “food” for thought. The food thing they did around Australia too, in sort of a reverse way. They coerced us into actually bad looking restaurants there were ostensibly “cheap”, didnt have prices listed or only some prices listed so you assumed everything was about the same, and when you were done you’d just dropped like $100. No fun.

your posts are getting progressively most intense!! I hope you are able to make it back here in one piece very very very exciting read! I feel like I can totally imagine you doing all these things and maybe it was not smart to take those pictures but it was awesome and you got a great story out of it! keep up the craziness be safe though!

Kevin,
Leah and I just read your post! OMG! As a parent, I was worried about you. I am glad you are safe. This is one story you will be telling your grandchildren. I expect that life will be pretty boring when you get back to the states.

On another note, I did not know that the issues in the middle east were spreading to China. Interesting.

Please do not incite riots or photograph riots in China. We want you to come home in one piece. Mom was NOT HAPPY to read tthe word “disappeared” in a story where cops appear to be dragging you toward same.

So first you push the boundaries of organized swindlers and escape so I suppose that emboldens you to take on the government? Just chill the last two weeks and come home to us.

Kevin!!! I read this on my phone (ya know that laptop of mine is acting all silly) and then I got to the picture and it froze! I was so freaked out I had to find another way to read it and all the computers were down so I used my brother’s iTouch. Jealous of it. Anyways, this story is so freaky! I read it and was so scared. I’m sure Mom and Dad felt way worse! It was like Taken but in real life and spooky. So to reiterate what everyone else is saying. Don’t disappear. If the last thing I said to you was ‘lol’, I’m pretty sure I would never live that down. Furthermore, WHEN DO YOU COME HOMESIES!? We Aggies and peeps miss ya tons and want to see your face. I know you’re traveling again once you get thar but yeah. Come to us!

Billie — when I talk about a concept that Dan and I developed called “over-employment,” remember this entry. Basically there is in this country a staggeringly large percentage of the workforce that is employed to do basically nothing. One of the ways this gets manifested is through thousands of stand-around cops who are there to do just that. Pretty sure their job description is “stand the fuck around, wearing a uniform. 10kuai/hr.” So yeah, when there are even tiny whispers of a revolution, you mobilize this population so they won’t be entirely fucking useless because god knows those 75 cops weren’t doing anything better where they normally stand around, so you might as well have them stand around at the site where there’s a one in a hundred shot where they might be needed.

Segal clan — thanks for the support! Didn’t mean to worry anybody, moreso to entertain and above all inform; the revolution won’t be happening here, but the reason that’s the case is because they are incredibly efficient at shutting down freedoms of assembly, press, etc. This goes to show how utterly paranoid the Chinese Communist Party is these days. And Ben I have no idea how i’m going to keep ramping up the intensity haha… sad times

Sukes — definitely not smart. Hence line two of this post /=

Pops — if I were my son, I’d smack me upside the head too. Miss you.

Euro — I’d be pretty pissed if the last thing you said to me was ‘lol’ too =D fortunately all is safe and sound except for your computer which is apparently dead. sorry to hear that it hasn’t magically fixed itself since you wrote about it on the thread. But! I might be coming to CS during the week of the 20th, and bringing Geoff! Still have to iron these plans out but yeah.

HUZZAH! I’m way excited now! So fun!
Also, now I’m considering that this whole post/story thing was an elaborate plot to teach me a lesson about harassing people by lol comments. At least no one lost an arm.